Posted on 07/07/2019 7:56:17 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
The Justice Department (DOJ) is shifting matters involving efforts to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census to a new team of lawyers.
“As will be reflected in filings tomorrow in the census-related cases, the Department of Justice is shifting these matters to a new team of Civil Division lawyers going forward," DOJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec told The Hill in a statement on Sunday.
"Since these cases began, the lawyers representing the United States in these cases have given countless hours to defending the Commerce Department and have consistently demonstrated the highest professionalism, integrity, and skill inside and outside the courtroom."
"The Attorney General appreciates that service, thanks them for their work on these important matters, and is confident that the new team will carry on in the same exemplary fashion as the cases progress,” Kupec added.
A DOJ official told ABC News earlier that James Burnham, currently the deputy attorney general in the department’s civil division, and a former lawyer in the White House counsel’s office, will be leaving the team.
The Supreme Court blocked the administration's move to ask about citizenship on the census earlier weeks ago, ruling that the government's argument that the question is necessary to enforce the Voting Rights Act was unsatisfactory.
Last Tuesday, the Commerce Department announced that it had begun printing copies of the census without the question.
The next day, government lawyers revealed they were mounting a last-ditch effort to try to include the citizenship question.
On Friday, DOJ lawyers told a federal judge that the Trump administration is reviewing “all available options” for adding the question.
President Trump also announced that he is considering an executive order to include the question.
The census is crucial for determining the number of congressional seats and electoral votes that each state gets.
Critics have panned the citizenship question as an effort to undercount immigrant communities and possibly reduce their resources and representation in Congress.
Impeach Roberts.
p!!!!
Let’s hope this is the A Team.
*****************************
I’m sure Barr is putting COMPETENT lawyers on it now. More importantly, he’s getting rid of the incompetent and/or FOOT DRAGGING SABOTEURS who were handling it previously.
“I’m sure Barr is putting COMPETENT lawyers on it now.”
I wish I had your confidence.
Just print it with the question and to hell with the judges.
The Commerce Department, including the Secretary of Commerce, was more than happy to just roll over and let this Obama appointed district judge carry the water for the Democrat Party.
What did the Supreme Court say back in 2010 when Obama seized control of the Census from the Congress and removed the citizenship question from the Census? The Supreme Court was silent, because no one challenged what the Obama Administration did. They just rolled over.
This time around the District Judge wrote a 300 page opinion arguing that asking that question was unconstitutional and that the Secretary of Commerce did not have the authority to decide what questions would be on the Census. In his view, every Democrat wackadoodle in the country has a personal veto over what goes into the Census form. The Supreme Court actually said that this was nonsense and that the question is constitutional and that the Secretary of Commerce does have the authority to decide what questions go into the Census.
So, why aren’t the forms being printed with the questions? Because this judge, a Democrat partisan, said that he didn’t like the Government’s rationale for putting the question back into it, citing something called the Administrative Procedures Act (APA).
The bozos that wanted to roll over on this one, and who can’t seem to come up with a good reason to ask the citizenship question are the same ones who wrote the original unsatisfactory rationale.
The new gang of lawyers could begin with the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution that specified that any State that deprived an American citizen of his right to vote would have their Congressional representation reduced by the proportion of citizens who were deprived of their rights. To do this, the Government must know how many citizens are located in every State. This represents a Constitutional requirement for the question. That position will be challenged, but it is a stronger position than the view of this Judge and the Democrats that they don’t like the citizenship question.
If this Judge denies the Governments request, The Judiciary will be interfering with the Census process, that belongs to the Executive Branch and the administrative process foul can be argued ad infinitum over the next ten years
“President Trump also announced that he is considering an executive order to include the question.”
—
It sounds like that is a possibility.
I am of the opinion that if an EO can create “DACA” then an EO can add a question to the census.
I wish I had your confidence.
*************************
The former DOJ lawyers handling it were from the meek/compliant Sessions era and were no doubt Deep State saboteurs, IMHO. Barr won’t put up with that crap.
correct all the argument they need is the 14th amendment.
One thing I like about Trump is his reticence to use EO’s which often seem extra-constitutional to me.
DACA is a memo, not an executive order.
The Swamp & its Media just like to pretend that it's "law".
Okay, so they are printing the forms WITHOUT the question? Then why bother with the court? Sure, a new team of lawyers to replace the losers, but still, what is the point?
Trump has been sending Deep State career lawyers into court to defend his policies since January 2017.
If even one of those lawyers has made a passionate or compelling argument in defense of a Trump policy, I have not read about it.
After Trump won his Supreme Court case about blocking refugees from terrorist Muslim countries, did Trump even implement that policy?
Once again, I have not read one word about that happening.
Now they know the faulty reasoning Roberts used...should be a slam dunk...
“IMHO. Barr won’t put up with that crap.”
Again ... I wish I had your confidence. Barr seemed to have come on strong, with guns a-blazin’, but he still has Wray at the FBI, and none of the 50+ scofflaws and/or outright criminals are being dealt with.
It’s worse than that.
The composition of the census is a ministerial function. Thousands of decisions are made every day by those in positions of authority, both in the Executive Branch and in the Legislature.
It has never been the law (up until now) that the subjective feelings or state of mind of the responsible person making a decision could, by itself, make that decision which would otherwise be proper, invalid.
Does this mean, for example, that a law restricting the EPA that passed by two votes would be deemed to have not passed because four Members of Congress who voted for it were “climate deniers”?
The citizenship question was on multiple census questionnaires, including the 2000 one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.